Davian.

The moment the warriors rushed down the hallway to search for Galen, the corridor fell into an uneasy silence.

Their sudden departure had been loud and urgent, boots striking the stone floor, armor clinking softly as they moved, but now that sound was fading quickly into the distance.

Step by step.

Echo by echo.

Until eventually...there was nothing left.

Just silence.

I stood there without moving, my grey eyes fixed on the empty stretch of hallway where they had disappeared moments earlier. The corridor now looked strangely hollow, as if the tension that had filled it earlier had been pulled away along with them.

But it hadn’t.

It was still there.

Lingering.

Heavy.

The echo of their footsteps slowly faded into nothingness, leaving behind an uncomfortable stillness that seemed to settle over everything.

Something about this entire situation didn’t sit right with me.

My fingers tightened slightly around the small pouch resting in my hand, the faint rustle of the fabric barely audible in the quiet corridor. Inside it was the powdery substance the guards had discovered.

The same substance that had been found in Maria’s room.

Maria’s room.

Galen.

The assassin.

Adrien lying unconscious somewhere between life and death.

Too many things were happening at once.

Too many pieces of a puzzle that didn’t seem to fit together.

I slowly exhaled through my nose, the breath leaving my lungs in a controlled stream as I tried to force my mind to settle. My thoughts were racing too quickly, jumping from one possibility to another without pause.

That wouldn’t help anyone.

I needed to think.

Carefully. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Logically.

If the substance truly came from Maria’s room, then the explanation should be simple.

There were only a few possibilities.

Three, to be exact.

Either Maria was lying.

Or someone had deliberately planted the substance there.

Or the real culprit was her roommate...Galen.

My jaw tightened slightly as that last possibility crossed my mind again.

Galen.

The name alone felt wrong in the middle of all this chaos.

But right now, it was the only lead anyone had and that was exactly why the warriors had rushed off the moment it was mentioned.

Still...Something about the situation felt incomplete, like there was a piece missing somewhere that no one had noticed yet.

But aside from everything unfolding around us, aside from the investigation and the attack on Adrien, something else was gnawing at my patience.

Something far more irritating.

Noah.

More specifically...Noah’s sudden possessiveness and Maria’s defiance.

The memory of the scene from earlier replayed clearly in my mind, the way Noah had touched her, held her. The way his arm had wrapped around her waist so naturally, as if it belonged there.

My grip tightened unconsciously.

She was our damn mate.

Ours.

The bond between us wasn’t something trivial, It wasn’t something that could simply be ignored.

Yet there she was, allowing another man to hold her so comfortably, standing close to him as if there was nothing wrong with it.

As if we didn’t exist.

As if the bond meant nothing.

And what irritated me even more was the way she had looked at us afterward, that stubborn defiance in her eyes, that refusal to acknowledge the truth standing right in front of her.

It took every ounce of restraint I had not to walk straight up to Noah and punch him across the face.

Hard enough to wipe that calm expression right off it, hard enough to make him understand the reality he seemed determined to ignore.

Maria would never be his.

Never.

The bond between mates wasn’t something that could be replaced by mere attachment or proximity. No matter how much he tried to stand beside her...he would never truly belong there.

Slowly, my gaze drifted away from the empty hallway and moved across the corridor instead.

Aidan and Vanessa were still standing not too far away, they hadn’t moved since the warriors left.

Vanessa looked unsettled.

The tension in her posture was obvious now that the corridor had grown quiet. Her fingers were still intertwined with Aidan’s, clinging to his hand almost unconsciously.

But her attention wasn’t on him.

Her gaze kept drifting toward the direction Maria and Noah had disappeared earlier, as if she was still trying to process everything that had just happened.

As if she couldn’t quite understand the situation either.

Aidan, however, looked completely unreadable, his expression revealed nothing. At first glance, his posture appeared relaxed, almost indifferent to the tension lingering in the hallway.

But the tightness in his shoulders told a different story.

A silent one.

One that suggested he was far more aware of everything happening than he allowed anyone to see.

I hadn’t even relaxed my thoughts when hurried footsteps suddenly echoed through the hallway again.

The sharp sound of boots striking the floor immediately pulled my attention away from the spiral of thoughts in my head. The tension that had barely settled moments ago returned instantly.

One of the warriors appeared at the end of the corridor, moving quickly toward us. His breathing was slightly uneven, his chest rising and falling faster than normal as he approached.

"Alpha Davian!"

His voice carried urgency.

I turned toward him immediately.

"What is it?" I asked, my tone calm but firm.

The warrior stopped a few steps away and lowered his head respectfully before speaking.

"We searched the quarters," he reported.

"And?" Damien asked sharply before I could respond.

His impatience was obvious as he stepped slightly forward, clearly expecting the report to continue without delay.

The warrior hesitated.

Just for a second.

It was subtle, but I noticed it.

His eyes flickered briefly before he finally spoke again.

"Galen is gone."

The words dropped into the hallway like a stone sinking into still water.

Silence followed instantly.

The warriors standing nearby stiffened. Even Damien stopped moving.

My eyes slowly narrowed.

"Gone?" I repeated slowly.

The single word carried more weight than it appeared.

"Yes, Alpha," the warrior confirmed.

A cold realization settled inside my chest almost immediately.

If Galen had nothing to hide...She wouldn’t run.

Running meant fear.

Running meant guilt.

My fingers slowly curled around the small pouch still resting in my hand, the powdery substance inside crinkling softly beneath my grip.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

For a brief moment, I stared at the pouch again, my mind rapidly piecing together the implications.

Then I looked back up.

"Seal the pack borders," I ordered calmly.

My voice was steady, controlled.

But the authority behind it was unmistakable.

The warrior straightened instantly.

"Yes, Alpha!"

"And send more patrols into the forest," I continued.

My voice lowered slightly as my gaze shifted toward the direction of the forest beyond the pack territory.

"She couldn’t have gone far."

The warrior nodded quickly, clearly understanding the urgency of the situation.

"Yes, Alpha."

Without wasting another second, he turned and rushed down the corridor again, his footsteps echoing as he disappeared from sight.

Beside me, Damien let out a low whistle.

"Well," he muttered under his breath. "That doesn’t look good for Galen."

No.

It didn’t.

But my thoughts were already moving far beyond the obvious conclusion.

Because Galen running only answered one small part of the problem.

It raised a far more dangerous question.

Who gave her the poison?

And more importantly...Who exactly was she working for?